Amit Shah criticised Opposition parties during a Lok Sabha debate, arguing that while they publicly support women’s reservation, their stance in practice reflects resistance through conditional objections and procedural delays.
Speaking ahead of voting on amendments related to the women’s quota law and the Delimitation Bill, Shah stated that no party had outright opposed reservation for women, but claimed that members of the INDIA bloc were effectively undermining it by attaching “ifs and buts” to its implementation. According to him, such conditional support amounts to indirect opposition.
He further linked resistance to delimitation with reluctance to expand political representation for marginalised communities, asserting that opposing the exercise also means opposing an increase in seats reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). Shah framed delimitation as essential to ensuring fair representation, pointing out disparities where some constituencies have vastly larger voter populations than others, which he said violates the democratic principle of equal value for each vote.
Addressing concerns raised by southern states about a potential imbalance in representation, Shah rejected the idea of a North-South divide. He emphasised that all states and Union Territories, regardless of size, hold equal constitutional standing in Parliament, and cautioned against narratives that could create regional divisions.
Taking aim at the Congress party, Shah accused it of historically delaying delimitation. He referred to past decisions, including the freeze on seat allocation imposed during the Emergency period, arguing that the current situation stems from those earlier policies rather than recent government actions.
On the implementation of women’s reservation—formally known as the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam—Shah reiterated that it would come into effect after a fresh delimitation exercise based on the upcoming Census. He maintained that expanding the total number of seats, rather than redistributing existing ones, would ensure that no state loses representation while accommodating reservation requirements.
He also sought to address concerns surrounding the caste census, confirming that the government plans to include caste data in the next Census. He clarified that delays in conducting the Census were due to disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, but assured that the exercise would now move forward with the inclusion of caste enumeration.
Overall, Shah positioned delimitation as both a constitutional requirement and a necessary reform to correct imbalances in representation, while urging Opposition parties to support the process to ensure uniform value of votes and effective implementation of women’s reservation.
